The Tigers announced Thursday morning that they’ve hired Jeff Greenberg as their new general manager. The 37-year-old Greenberg worked with current Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris with the Cubs, serving as the team’s director of pro scouting, director of baseball operations and assistant general manager during an 11-year career there. In 2022, Greenberg was hired away from baseball entirely, joining the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks as an associate general manager, but he’ll return to MLB and occupy a critical role as the No. 2 name on the Tigers’ revamped baseball operations hierarchy.
“I’m thrilled to add an executive of Jeff’s quality to our baseball operations leadership team,” Harris said in a press release this morning. “Throughout this search, it was important for me to find someone who can fit seamlessly into the culture we’re building here. I also wanted to bring in someone with a fresh perspective and new ideas that could challenge us on a daily basis and make us all better as we strive towards our goal of bringing postseason baseball back to Detroit. We’re excited to welcome Jeff, his wife, Erin, and their sons, Leo and Sam to the Tigers family.”
Per the Tigers’ press release, Greenberg “oversaw the strategic systems and processes in hockey operations” with the Blackhawks, while also having a hand in scouting and player development. That vantage point in another sport figures to indeed bring some unique perspective to his new role with the Tigers organization.
“It’s an extraordinary honor to take on this role with one of the most historic franchises in Major League Baseball,” Greenberg said in his own statement. “Throughout my conversations with Scott, Chris Ilitch and the rest of the team with the Tigers, it became clear that this organization is headed in a great direction with an incredible culture of development and innovation that I’m excited to be part of. Another constant message in those conversations was that Tigers fans want to see winning baseball deep into October. I’m excited to get to work with our front office on off-season and longer-term plans to make that our reality.”
The Tigers’ front office has seen a good amount of turnover since Al Avila was fired as general manager a year ago. Longtime Tigers assistant GM David Chadd also parted ways with the organization in the aftermath of Avila’s dismissal, reuniting with former Tigers president Dave Dombrowski in Philadelphia. Scouting director Scott Pleis was not retained after spending a decade in that role.
Greenberg joins Harris and assistant GM Rob Metzler — hired away from the Rays — as high-profile external additions who’ve joined the baseball operations department in the past year. There’s certainly been some continuity as well, however. Assistant general managers Jay Sartori and Sam Menzin, vice president of player personnel Scott Bream, and vice president of player development Ryan Garko were all retained by the new regime and still hold those same titles.